The Fall of Society (The Fall of Society Series, Book 1) (28 page)

           
“Sure,
why?”

           
“I’ll
tell you in fifteen.”

           
“Okay,”
Ardent said as John walked toward the hospital.

           
Fifteen
minutes later, they were all gathered in the front courtyard. More
specifically, they were gathered around the sinkhole from the sewer blast.

           
“This
is from the bomb you guys used in the sewer, isn’t it?” Joe said.

           
“Yeah,”
Bear said.

           
“This
is real pretty, but why are we here exactly; are we having a picnic?” Ceraulo
impatiently said.

           
That’s
when the ground shook slightly, and they watched as the sinkhole became a
little larger by a couple feet.

           
“What
the fuck?” Derek said as he stepped back.

           
“That’s
why,” John said and he pointed to his knife stuck in the ground. “I put my
knife there three hours ago.”

           
“Yeah,
and?” Alan said rudely.

           
“I
put it on the edge of the sinkhole.” John said.

           
They
saw that the edge of the sinkhole was past the knife by several feet.

           
John
picked up his knife. “Now look where the edge of the sinkhole is headed.”

           
It
was headed toward the front wall of the hospital—it was only sixty feet
away.

           
“Those
tunnels are concrete, right?” Donnie said. “Shouldn’t they hold up?”

           
“The
sewer system in the city is over a hundred years old, and that’s about how long
concrete lasts before it comes apart,” Tom said.

           
“Perfect,”
Derek said. “We just got here, man!”

           
“How
long do you think we have?” Ardent asked John.

           
“It’s
had to tell; it could just stop and never reach it, or worst case scenario…a day,
maybe two,” John answered.

           
“Goddamnit,”
Derek barked.

           
“What?
A day or two until what?” Joe asked confused.

           
“What
do you think, you idiot,” Donnie told him.

           
“What?!”
Joe shouted.

           
“A
day or two until the sinkhole reaches the stone wall and undermines it,” Bear
said. “And then it might collapse.”

           
“The
wall might come down?” Maggie said as she held her daughter close.

           
“Yeah,”
John said.

           
“Great,
that’s just great!” Derek said.

           
“Then
we need to hurry up and get out of here,” Milla said.

           
“Ya
think?” Ceraulo said rudely.

           
“Not
until we fix both of the boat’s motors, otherwise, it might not make it to the
coast because we’re gonna load it to capacity with supplies and all of us,”
Ardent told them.

           
Lauren
stood there, listening, and occasionally looking at John.

           
“Then
you guys need to pick up the pace and fix that piece of shit!” Alan said.

           
“We’re
working as fast as we can,” Bear said.

           
“You
need to work faster!” Joe added.

           
As
they were arguing—no one noticed that the ground in the center of the
sinkhole
moved
slightly, just barely,
but Maggie’s daughter, Corina, noticed. She stepped away from her mother’s
grasp toward the movement in the ground.

           
Curiosity
had her.

           
She
was within a couple feet of it when Maggie saw her.

           
“What’re
you looking at, baby?” she asked her daughter.

           
Suddenly,
the ground burst apart in a cloud of dust and one of the dead sprang out. It
attacked the first person that it saw—

           
The
little girl.

           
But
Maggie grabbed her screaming daughter out of harm’s way, just as the stench
swiped its claws at Corina, barely nicking her dress. John was the first to
draw his pistol and shoot the thing dead in the head.

           
“Holy
shit!” Anthony said.

           
“Fuck!
Those things are under the ground?” Ceraulo exclaimed.

           
“Must’ve
been one from when we blasted the sewer and the tunnel collapsed in on them.”
Bear said.

           
Maggie
held her daughter close and looked her over. “Are you okay, baby?”

           
“I’m
okay, Mommy.”

           
“We
need to cover this hole with something,” said Ardent.

           
“Use
the eighteen-wheeler,” Joe suggested.

           
“No,
we’re using my truck to tow the boat,” Tom said.

           
John
pointed to the abandoned cars nearby. “Let’s use a couple of those.”

           
A
little while later, and they already had one compact car in the sinkhole on top
of the corpse that came out of the ground. The car was flipped over so it would
cover the sinkhole better. They had another compact car in place and six of
them, including John and Lauren, were ready to flip it over as well.

           
“Okay,
ready?” Ardent said and they were. “On three. One, two, three!”

           
Together,
they lifted the car and flipped it over into the sinkhole.

           
“That
should hold any more of them out, for now, anyway,” Tom said.

           
“Yeah,”
Ardent agreed. “We’re gonna head back to the boat and get the second motor
working as fast as we can.”

           
“Good,”
Tom said.

           
Ardent
and Bear left, and everyone else went back to what they were doing, which was loading
the boat with supplies. John waited until Ceraulo was gone before he approached
Alan.

           
“Hey,
Alan?”

           
“Yeah,
what?”

           
“Can
I borrow the keys to get into the north wing?” John asked.

           
“No.”

           
“No?
Why not?”

           
“Cuz
I don’t have those keys.”

           
“But
you’re the engineer, you should have keys.”

           
“I
had just started this stupid job when this infection shit hit, and I didn’t get
a set of my own keys cuz the guy that I replaced was a dick and took his keys
with him.”

           
“So
who has keys then?”

           
“Ceraulo.”

           
“Really?”

           
“Yeah,
really,” Alan said and walked away.

           
John
stared at Ceraulo with suspicion as he walked into the hospital.

           
Joe
and Maggie were also heading back inside. Maggie was carrying Corina…

           
The
child’s dress bounced a little with each of Maggie’s steps, exposing her thighs
for just a moment with each bounce…

           
Maggie
didn’t check her thoroughly because she thought that the dead thing didn’t
touch her, it just nicked her dress…

           
Her
dress bounced up again and exposed something…

           
The
corpse had scratched the little girl’s thigh.

           
Not
a deep scratch, but it was there.

           
Corina
didn’t realize it, herself, because she was so shocked when the thing attacked
her.

           
It
was a very light scratch.

           
And
it was bleeding
…

           
Tom
and Anthony went back to their trailer and John followed them.

           
“Hey,
Tom?” John said.

           
“What’s
up?” Tom answered.

           
“Do
you have any rope?”

           
“What
kind of rope?”

           
“Climbing
rope.”

           
“What
do you need it for?” Tom asked.

           
“I
like to have as many options as possible in case of an emergency.”

           
“Makes
sense, what kind of option will rope provide?” Tom asked.

           
“I
want to tie some rope to the roof in case someone gets stuck up there, then
they’ll be able to rappel down.”

           
“I
hope that doesn’t happen to me because I hate heights,” Tom said as he looked
up at the hospital’s roof.

           
“Me,
too, but it’s smart to be prepared.”

           
“Amen
to that, brother,” Tom said. “There’s rope in the back, by Anthony’s room.”

           
“Thanks.”

           
John
went and grabbed six bundles of climbing rope and then saw some climbing harnesses.

           
“Tom,
can I take a couple of these climbing harnesses?”

           
“Sure,
man.”

           
“Thanks,”
John told him. “Anthony, can you give me a hand?”

           
“Yeah.”

           
They
grabbed all the climbing gear and left to go up to the roof.

• • •

           
John
and Anthony were setting up the ropes on the main roof of the hospital. They
had already placed three ropes on the front side of the building and were
setting three more down the back of the building, securing the ropes to piping
or to anything else that was strong enough to hold the weight of a person.

           
“John?”

           
“Yeah,
Anthony?”

           
“You
know that she likes you, right?”

           
“Who?”
but John knew.

           
“Lauren.”

           
“Why
do you say that?”

           
“I
see the way she looks at you; she’s like a puppy when you’re around.”

           
“A
puppy? That girl? More like a pit bull.” John laughed.

           
“You
know what I mean,” Anthony said as he threw a rope over the roof.

           
The
rope unraveled and fell all the way to the bottom.

           
“Yeah,
I do, kid, but it’s not exactly the best time to go on a date, ya know?”

           
“Then
when?” Anthony asked.

           
“The
day I can walk around without a gun.”

           
“When
will that be?”

           
“I
honestly have no idea.”

           
“But
she likes you.”

           
“Okay,
Anthony, I get it, she likes me.”

           
“She
doesn’t seem to care that it’s a bad time for dating.”

           
John
threw down a rope.

           
“Well,
she’s a girl, and girls are all mushy inside.”

           
“True,
but Lauren could kick my ass, mushy or not.”

           
“Yeah,”
John said. “I wouldn’t want to mess with her, either.”

           
“Do
you still want a set of the plastic armor?” Anthony asked.